


Consectary

by GloriaMundi



Category: Inception (2010)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Detectives, Community: au_bingo, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-02-26
Updated: 2011-02-26
Packaged: 2017-10-15 23:17:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 918
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/165888
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GloriaMundi/pseuds/GloriaMundi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Detective Arthur, here, knows every detail of what you've done: and I know all the reasons why you did it."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Consectary

I knew the game was up when I saw, through the rippled glass door, the silhouette of the broad-shouldered man. He was sitting in my chair, behind my desk: but he wasn't _doing_ anything, just sitting. Waiting. It was what his sort did.

"Do come in, Doctor Cobb," he called out cheerfully. "I can see you standing there, you know: and while I'm sure you'd prefer to carry on running, there's really not much point."

I exhaled, a long slow breath, before opening the door and entering my own office. Perhaps it would be the last time. Though -- what did they have on me? I needed to be sure.

As I turned to lock the door behind me, I realised that someone else was heading for my office. Quick, light footsteps; a slim figure; a hand reaching out to keep the door from closing. "Thanks, Doctor Cobb," murmured the newcomer, slipping past me.

The man behind my desk was casually, almost shabbily, dressed: pinstripe pants, suspenders, shirtsleeves rolled up. He hadn't shaved for several days. In contrast, the guy who'd slipped past me and now stood in front of my desk, facing me, was all business in a good suit and a subdued tie.

"Doctor Dominic Cobb?" he said.

I nodded. There was little point in denying it, when the pair of them had tracked me here to my office at the university.

"I'm Detective Arthur, and you're under arrest for the murder of your wife, Doctor Mallorie Cobb."

I waited for my heart to hammer, braced myself for the rush of panic, but it didn't come. I'd been running for so long, running scared: more than anything, I felt relieved that it was finally over.

That didn't mean I had to take it lying down.

"My wife was ... mentally unstable," I said. "She took her own life."

The man behind the desk spoke for the first time. "Your wife was unstable," he said, light and pleasant and with a strong English accent, "because you made her unstable, Doctor Cobb."

"And you must be Mr Eames," said Detective Arthur before I could protest.

"Must I?" said the Englishman, chuckling. He leaned back in his -- my -- chair, rocking it onto the back legs. I could hear it creak. "Whatever leads you to that conclusion, Detective?"

"He's not with you?" I interjected, gesturing between Detective Arthur and the man who was breaking my office chair. Eames.

"I've never met him before," said Arthur calmly. "But I'm well aware of his work, and last month I deduced that he'd taken an interest in your case."

"Deduced how?" said Eames.

Arthur snorted. "Your fingerprints were all over it, Mr Eames. Not literally, of course: you're far too careful for that. But when I realised somebody was visiting the same locations, the same individuals, as me -- sometimes before I even got there, sometimes after I'd left -- and asking very different questions, it seemed ... probable that it was you, Eames."

"I'm flattered by the specificity of your realisations, Detective," said Eames with a dip of his head. "And I confess I hoped we'd meet, at last, on this case."

"Mutual," said Arthur, looking down at his polished Italian loafers. From the creases around his eyes, he was smiling.

"Do you actually need me here?" I demanded, hoping to throw them off balance.

"Don't worry, Doctor Cobb," said Detective Arthur coldly. "Business before pleasure. Now," he went on, reaching into his jacket for a slim notepad, "the facts of the case are these: that on or around the 11th of November last, you and Doctor Mallorie Cobb reserved the Lifestyle Suite at the Royal Monceau Hotel in Paris. Mallorie Cobb checked in at 4pm on the afternoon of 11th November: you, Doctor Cobb, did not arrive until 8pm. Your wife had been drinking; there was an argument, during the course of which she fell to her death from the open window."

"She wasn't herself!" I shouted. "She thought she was in a dream and if she died, she'd wake up!"

"Now, why would she think that?" said Eames, tilting his chair forward with a crash. "Perhaps she thought that because you had drugged her so she'd be more suggestible, and persuaded her that she was trapped in a world that wasn't real. Hmm?"

"That's not --"

"That's perfectly true," said Eames levelly. His eyes were grey, and colder than ice. "You wanted her out of the way: you were both working on the same neuropharmacological problems, but the research she was doing contradicted some of your own findings. Her paper -- the one you withdrew from publication after her death -- shows conclusively that somnacin has long-term effects on the anterior cingulate gyrus, which in turn affects emotion and empathy."

"Anterior cingulate gyrus?" said Detective Arthur slowly. "Eames, I'm impressed."

"So you see, Dr Cobb, you're caught between a rock and a hard place," said Eames, not acknowledging the detective's compliment but visibly pleased by it. "Detective Arthur, here, knows every detail of what you've done: and I know all the reasons why you did it."

"You don't ..." I began, but there was nothing left for me to say. I held my hands out for the cuffs that were jingling in Detective Arthur's hand, and let him arrest me, and tried not to reveal anything to Eames' penetrating gaze.

"Later," said Arthur to Eames, and Eames gave him a sloppy parody of a salute, and a smile that reminded me -- so much, so painfully much -- of Mal.

-end-

**Author's Note:**

> [The Royal Monceau Hotel, in Paris](http://www.leroyalmonceau.com/#/a/2/rooms-suites/4/suites/139/lifestyle-suite/). As far as I can google, this is where the anniversary-suite scenes were filmed.


End file.
